


Miss Missing You

by ironiccowboykink



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Barry is cursed and his name is actually sildar Hallwinter, Cell stealing, Could you tell I couldn’t remember the name of Barry’s godforsaken body copier, Don’t copy to another site, F/M, It’s about the intimacy of Barry loving his wife, au where lup doesn’t get sucked into the umbrella and instead just chills in phandalin, barry REALLY REALLY loves his wife, being a lich sometimes is good, corpse shenanigans, uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-31 23:06:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20248138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ironiccowboykink/pseuds/ironiccowboykink
Summary: Well. Coin-Barry wasn’t expectingthis,it would seem.“O—oh, I— um,” he stammers, because this a frankly embarrassing way to re-meet your spouse, especially one who doesn’t remember you. If this gets any more awkward, Barry’s gonna die on the spot, and he can’t imagine how he’ll explainthat.





	Miss Missing You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mcelboycontent on tumblr](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=mcelboycontent+on+tumblr).

Barry really, really loves his wife.

So much so that he spent a year tracking her down, dying and reanimating and growing his body back in a frankly _really gross tube_ just so he can see her again.

So much so that when he finds her in Phandalin, he doesn’t think twice; it’s his _wife!_He finally found her! Well, that’s what his little coin says, anyway. And, you know, that coin seems _really_ adamant that this Lup person is a wonderful lady who’s apparently going to help, not just because Barry is fortunate enough to be married to her, but also because she’s genuinely just nice like that. Plus, Coin-Barry speaks about her with so much love and affection it’s nearly palpable. He must love her at least a little bit, even if he can’t remember.

Barry loves Lup so much that, when he finds his beautiful, amazing wife living peacefully in Phandalin, he neglects to think about the complications that “living” brings and nearly jumps immediately into her arms. He restrains himself slightly. “Lup!” He says cheerfully, feeling relieved that this cycle of death and undeath will finally be brought to an end with the help of his super intelligent and fantastic wife. 

“Woah!” Lup responds in almost exactly the same pitch and tone, except she sounds mostly incredulous and shocked. “Hold up big man—“ (And here, Barry blushes at the compliment) “Have we met before?” Her eyes narrow with suspicion. “How do you know my name?”

Barry is standing there with his arms outstretched like some sort of idiot while Lup warily guards her front door with a broom. In fact, Barry is some sort of idiot. Because Lup is alive, unfortunately. _Alive._ How could he forget what happens to your memories when you’re alive?

Well. Coin-Barry wasn’t expecting _this,_ it would seem. 

“O—oh, I— um,” he stammers, because this a frankly embarrassing way to re-meet your spouse, especially one who doesn’t remember you. If this gets any more awkward, Barry’s gonna die on the spot, and he can’t imagine how he’ll explain _that._

He’s busy stuttering his way through the “I’m a lich” explanation when he notices the for sale sign next to her house. Thank Gods, a convenient out!

“I’m your next door neighbor.” He lies, with all the confidence of one who knows themself to be a terribly bad liar. Barry thinks the smile he tacks on the end makes it more genuine, but he’s not sure.

Lup eyes him suspiciously, then simply sighs. “I don’t know why I believe you, but I do. Nice to meet you. What did you say your name was?”

Barry wipes the nonexistent sweat off his brow. “I didn’t, haha. Name’s Sildar.”

“Just Barry?” Lup raises an eyebrow.

“Ah, no. Um…” Damn. He forgot about the curse. scratches his brow nervously before continuing, “Hallwinter. My name is Sildar Hallwinter.”

If Lup’s eyebrows were to go any higher, they would disappear into her hairline. “You’re telling me your name is Barry Bluejeans?”

“I’m actually telling you it’s Sildar Hallwinter, but whatever,” he mutters. 

“What was that, Barry?”

“Yup!” He says loudly. “That’s what I’m telling you. My name is Barry Bluejeans, born and raised.”

She looks absolutely appalled, and Barry has to hold back a snicker. Yeah, that’s how she looked the first time Barry told her. “And I don’t suppose you’re wearing jeans right— holy fuck! You’re wearing jeans _right now!”_

Yeah. That’s what she said the first time Barry told her. 

This time Barry does laugh, and he sticks out a hand. “Nice to meet you, neighbor.”  
——  
Fortunately and unfortunately after that, Barry moves in.

It’s fortunate because now he gets to be close to Lup. He gets to fall in love with her for himself, not because the version of him who remembers her does. She’s charming, she’s chaotic, she’s deeply empathetic and feeling and they’re all things Barry likes in a person.

Sometimes he looks out at this village and he wonders if it was right to be so close to her if he doesn’t even remember, or if his memories exist in a space where they’re real and where they aren’t, resulting in him not knowing a damn thing if he were alive, but he knows that if he were to spend his whole life away from Lup the second he died his ghost would be trying to find his way back to her. He’s right where he’s supposed to be, he guesses. His lich form wouldn’t have it any other way.

And besides, who is Barry to break up a love that strong?

The unfortunate thing is that it was a _bitch_ to move all of his stuff here. He was several hundred fantasy miles away before he managed to find Lup, holing himself up in some cave so his body could reform. And due to a little accident with his Barry Regrowing Machine™️, he spilled the beans about his lich form. It was a little gross looking at his head squished under the thing, but considering how he’s died before it was manageable. Thankfully that meant he had _tons_ of DNA to work with this time, because his body wasn’t completely evicerated or something like that.

The townsfolk don’t really trust him anymore, but. That’s— that’s whatever. Lup trusts him still for some inexplicable reason, which is good enough for him. It might be because he once killed some bandits and now their rotting corpses shamble around the town doing menial chores at Barry’s will. It doesn’t matter. Barry will take what he can get. That trust makes it a little bit easier for him to collect her skin cells when she’s not looking, which was not easy by any means. And also unbearably weird, so weird that Barry almost collapses from the cringey feeling crawling up his spine as he scrapes some cells from her arm off into a Petri dish in the night.

But it’s done! Rather than growing his own body again, Barry simply starts to grow another Lup. Of course, he’s going to have to kill her to get her lich form out. Physical Lup might not be too pleased by kicking it but Lich Lup, his _wife,_ will definitely understand. He has enough space for a lab in the house’s basement, even if it’s a little cramped. 

Barry is admiring his wife’s form in the Body Machine when Lup kicks the door to his back door open. “It’s not what you think!” Is the first thing out of his mouth.

“Barr, I don’t want to make any assumptions about liches, but—“ Lup says, except she’s cut off by the second thing out of Barry’s mouth, which is the spell _”Fireball.”_

Lup immediately goes up in flames and oooh, Lip is going to make _so much_ fun of him. Damn it. 

He watches her spirit peel away from her body and even though her face is skeletal he can just see how exasperated she is. “Really, Barry? Fireball? That’s the best you could think of?”

“I panicked!”

“Clearly,” she says drily, floating over to hug him. “Missed you, baby.”

If Barry were capable of sighing he would. He hugs her back, pouring all the years he spent without her into it. “Missed you too.”


End file.
